London City vs Heathrow: the race to New York

BA’s new service to New York flies from London City Airport and cuts
immigration corners with a stop-off in Ireland. But how quick is it? Charles
Starmer-Smith steps aboard, while Graham Boynton promises to beat him there
via a standard transatlantic flight from Heathrow
.

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BA's new business class service from London City Airport to New York launched this week

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The service promises to reduce the time it takes to make a transatlantic crossing

00.00 I leave Canary Wharf with less than an hour before my flight departs but, if anything, I’m early.

00.17 No crowded tube or over-priced train for me: I saunter into City Airport after a quick ride on the empty and efficient DLR.

00.22 It takes just five minutes to check in and pass through security. I think back to my last flight, when I joined a queue that snaked around the entire Gatwick North Terminal.

00.28 After a quick browse round the shops, I head to Gate 24 for the 12.50 flight to New York. The gate doubles as BA’s lounge, and, it seems, a Blackberry convention. As I ready myself to join the City suits, I smile smugly at the thought of Graham battling with lengthy security queues at Heathrow. I soon wish I hadn’t. “Sir, I’m afraid there is an hour-long delay,” says one of the apologetic staff at the lounge entrance. “Technical problems.”

00.55 It’s not looking good – the left turbine of our aircraft is being dismantled. Engineers, wearing luminous yellow bibs, crouch beneath it with furrowed brows.

00.55 To BA’s credit, the captain pops in to apologise: they’re waiting for a new engine part to arrive from Gatwick. Our departure is set for 2.30pm – 1hr 40 minutes behind schedule.

1.10 “It’s T5 all over again,” says the disgruntled man on my right, whose French wife casts one of those classically disdainful French looks. Staff buzz round trying to keep everyone cheerful: champagne is dispensed, but the bubble has already burst on my chances.

2.30 Finally, we board the plane. It’s full, and yet there’s so much space: the A318 can take 100 seats, yet this has only 32. With just eight rows of gleaming flatbeds, it feels almost like a private jet.

2.50 We roar down the short runway, climbing steeply above the Thames Barrier, before banking past the Gherkin. Next stop Shannon. Why Shannon? Because the A318 may be the biggest plane able to take off from City Airport’s short runway, but it doesn’t have the fuel capacity to reach the United States (thanks to the Jet Stream it can fly direct on the return leg), so it needs to refuel. The clever bit is that you pass through US customs in Ireland to save time at the other end.

3.10 I feel a few pangs of guilt about the size of my carbon footprint. This aircraft has inherited the coveted BA001 number from Concorde but, in environmentalists’ eyes, it shares its disdain for green considerations. BA maintains that, though these A318s may have only 32 seats, they emit a quarter of the emissions of a standard 747. I’ll drink to that. Where’s the wine list?

3.13 “I must apologise,” says the amiable steward. “We’ve forgotten the corkscrews, so no wine, I am afraid. We’re hoping to resolve this in Shannon.” The passengers are placated by more champagne and the menu, created by the Borough Market restaurant Roast: fillet of beef, corn-fed chicken in Somerset cider, grilled sea bass...

3.25 The Blackberrys are back out. OnAir, an aviation telecommunications company, has installed technology that allows in-flight emails and SMS. I send a text to the office in Dom Joly style: “Hello, I’m on the plane.” It works without a hitch. Thankfully, BA has not gone down the Ryanair route of allowing in-flight calls. The thought of 32 City suits calling in trades is enough to make anyone reach for the ejector button.

3.55 The green fields of Shannon come into view as we descend. There are murmurs of discontent as we’re told to take our belongings with us through US customs.

4.15 It’s a surprisingly quick and efficient process. The usually surly US Homeland Security officials couldn’t have been more charming. But I wonder whether businessmen really want their journeys interrupted?

4.40 Back on board, there’s a change of crew and the new captain comes on the intercom to apologise: “When we heard there were delays we thought it might have been Virgin dirty tricks,” he says. “But unfortunately, we scored an own goal today.”

5.45 The meal is served (and lives up to expectations) and the wine is finally uncorked by the unfailingly polite crew. I settle back and enjoy the in-flight entertainment.

10.50 We begin our descent. I cannot help but feel a frisson of excitement as New York’s famous skyline comes into view.

11.05 We touch down at JFK, but have to wait for a free parking bay.

11.21 I disembark from the plane. It takes seven minutes from aircraft seat to taxi seat. Astounding, when I think back to past delays at JFK.

11.28 As my taxi sets off, I ponder whether BA will succeed where other business-only services have failed. Admittedly Eos, Maxjet and Silverjet flew from Stansted or Luton, but BA’s fares starting at £2,000 return from London City are nearly two times higher than theirs, though only just more than what BA charges for business-class seats on its Heathrow services. Even so, it seems dear, even for the affluent folk of the Square Mile and Canary Wharf, for what is essentially a glorified indirect outbound flight, albeit with incredibly quick transfers. The non-stop return leg is a different story.

12.19 I finally reach the neon-lit madness that is Times Square. Graham beat me by 75 minutes, but without that long delay, I would have won easily.

British Airways: Heathrow to New York JFK

00.00 I meet Charlie at Canary Wharf. He is 10 minutes away by DLR and I am anything from an hour to 90 minutes from Heathrow, depending on train connections. Having missed a flight from Heathrow this summer I am cautious and want to arrive at Terminal 5 around 90 minutes before my flight time. I bid Charlie goodbye and head for Canary Wharf Underground station.

00.03 The Jubilee Line is running without a hitch and the train arrives promptly. I find myself sitting next to Peter York, author of The Official Sloane Ranger Handbook – he looks too immaculately groomed and dermatologically steam-cleaned to be on the tube. We exchange smiles but do not talk.

00.35 Arrive at Paddington and transfer to the Heathrow Express without incident. It’s Sod’s law that when you are least in a hurry your connections work like clockwork. Usually, I am in a rush and miss the train by seconds. This time, much as I fumble around and dawdle at the ticket machine, I climb aboard with a minute to spare.

00.40 Heathrow Express departs Paddington.

00.57 Arrive at Terminal 5 and transfer smoothly via soaring escalators to Heathrow’s best terminal. T5 had terrible and much-publicised teething problems, but now it works very smoothly.

01.07 I have checked in electronically, cleared passport control and am standing in the security queue. Again, smooth and trouble-free.

01.18 Through security in a trice – well, 11 minutes. This is very efficient security processing. Travellers have now become so accustomed to this relatively arduous, but necessary, procedure that it works at twice the speed it did a year ago, when people tended to fumble around with laptops at the bottom of their carry-on bags and great bottles of hair conditioner and assorted unguents that clearly flouted the rules. Now they arrive at the X-ray machines with laptops out and bottles of less than 100ml in clear plastic bags.

I have between 30 and 40 minutes before I have to make my way to my departure gate. We are warned that it is at least a 10-minute transfer time from the main terminal to the satellite. I potter around one of west London’s most extensive shopping malls without much enthusiasm.

01.50 Leave the main terminal.

02.00 Check in at gate B46, 20 minutes before it closes.

02.10 Take my seat

02.55 Wheels up and we are heading across the Atlantic. The pilot announces that the flying time is six hours and 20 minutes. I can now relax, read, do a bit of work, watch a movie and all the other things that make flying fun.

Well, not quite. I have forgotten the plug adaptor for my laptop. Surely BA will have an adaptor I can use? Apparently there is only one on the aircraft and that is reserved for first-class passengers (I am in business). Seems petty, but I soldier on using battery power. Why don’t they have adaptors in all classes?

The flight passes uneventfully. The 747-400 is, however, almost completely full – 14 first-class seats all taken, 70 of 72 business-class taken, 30 World Traveller Plus seats all taken and 158 of the 170 World Traveller (economy) seats taken. Everyone takes this as a sign that the recession is behind us and there is a general mood of joie de vivre as we head for New York.

09.45 We land at JFK 20 minutes early at 15.45 local time.

09.52 On the stand. No messing around waiting for other aircraft to get out of the way.

10.12 Through immigration and out of the terminal — 20 minutes from getting off the aircraft, which is very fast. After years of being painfully slow, the US Immigration Service – at JFK, at least – has got its act together. The staff are no longer surly and brusque; in fact they are charming. Outside there’s a long taxi queue, but it’s moving quickly.

10.17 The taxi leaves the rank and we head for Times Square. The cabbie, from Guinea-Bissau in West Africa, says it will take at least an hour to get into the city – “the traffic’s too heavy for words, man”. In fact, once we’re halfway along the Van Wyck Expressway, the traffic clears and we sweep through the Mid-Town Tunnel into Manhattan.

11.05 Arrive in Times Square. It has been an easy and comfortable transatlantic crossing, without glitch or hassle. In time to have a shower and go out to dinner.

Conclusion

So, let’s call it a score-draw. Had BA001 not had a technical problem, Charlie would have arrived in Times Square half an hour before Graham. But the new City Airport all-business class service is not just about time-saving, for these days the journey to Heathrow on public transport is not onerous and Terminal 5 is a convivial launch pad for a transatlantic flight.

The new service offers something different – an environment where city gents can work their way across the Atlantic rather than just drink wine and watch movies, and on the direct flight home be back at their Canary Wharf desks for first thing. It also offers a novel experience for wealthy leisure travellers.

BA’s CEO, Willie Walsh, has said that it will take a year for the new service to make a profit and in the meantime there will be discounts and deals to entice passengers out to City Airport. It’s these deals Telegraph Travel readers may want to keep an eye out for.